Blue Fang COO: “Blame Rubbish Games on Rubbish Games”

Blue Fang, the developers responsible for the generally solid Zoo Tycoon, today hit out at the Wii’s falling software quality in an interview with gamesindustry.biz. Blaming the console’s ailing software to hardware adoption rate on the industry’s “circular argument”, Scott Triola explained its current, dangerous downward spiral.

The chief operating officer described the cyclical scenario in which poor consumer response to available third-party dross reduces attachment rate, in turn causing developers to write the platform off in terms of high investment potential. Worried for fear of lost returns, funds are held back and software houses are forced to peddle their own low-budget minigame collections in order to stay afloat.

From a consumer’s standpoint, a lot of families have bought those low quality titles and once you spend 40 hard-earned dollars on a game that just isn’t very good, you’re less likely to buy another product. Or, you’re more likely to buy from a proven brand like Nintendo that takes quality seriously.

Hoping new title World of Zoo will “cut through the noise”, Triola boasted that despite the spewing cluster of animal-centric titles on the console, Blue Fang’s attention to a “broader palette” of exotic breeds adds enough “danger and awe and mystery” to get the whole family on side.

Although unconvinced that any title plastered with grinning cartoon lions is going to set charts alight regardless of development calibre, it is comforting that industry figures are at least acknowledging the Wii’s often laughable output. It’s just a pity that so few attempt to buck this spiralling trend by sitting down, daring to spend out, and producing something halfway passable that appeals to a demographic in double figures.

First party output aside, gamers have long been trained to ignore Nintendo’s misleadingly titled, ever present, mocking gold sunburst emblem. As Wikipedia so gloriously puts it, “currently, the seal makes no guarantee of quality software, instead referring to the fact that the item is published or licensed by Nintendo.”